


The Idiot's Guide to Cursebreaking

by Tinywriterfairy



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, Ambiguous Relationships, Curses, Flirting, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:53:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25655461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tinywriterfairy/pseuds/Tinywriterfairy
Summary: Ten raises an eyebrow. “You’re coming to me for cursebreaking? Yuta the cursebreaker needs help with a curse?”“Shut up.”
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Nakamoto Yuta
Comments: 4
Kudos: 45
Collections: the eyes are the window to the soul





	The Idiot's Guide to Cursebreaking

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!! Fun fact, this is not the fic I planned on writing for Yuten week, but the other fic got too long too fast for me to finish in time, so I sat down and thought up a new prompt that would hopefully be shorter.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this one !! I do plan to continue it eventually, but I wanted something short and sweet so hopefully this manages that. As always, thank you so much to my wonderful beta! And also to Val for reading this and validating me before I submitted it.

Ten passes books from bin to bin behind his counter almost on autopilot. Without customers—and that’s unusual enough, on a Saturday morning—he has little else to do, but sorting new texts is the easiest part of his job. The more genuinely interesting texts will go into the small bookshelf at the back of his showroom, separate from any charms or potions that could accidentally damage them in a spill. He might even put a couple in the window if the titles are eye-catching enough to draw customers. Any actual magic texts will go into his back room for safekeeping. Unfortunately, Taeil’s latest shipment of books contains more drivel than divination. He could have Chenle do it, probably, but Chenle has developed a concerning habit of testing out spells he finds in Ten’s books without taking safety precautions first. Ten drops _The Idiot’s Guide to Spellcasting_ in the drivel bin. Fun as that might be, he’s not about to have his shop destroyed over it.

He almost falls off his stool when a wind with no source winds through the chimes he keeps at the door. The door doesn’t open. The breeze isn’t strong enough to affect even the nearest shelf—a display of delicate talismans and a few pretty baubles he keeps for the uninitiated—but it takes longer than usual for the chimes to stop.

“Oh, so I am getting customers today?” he asks the air. “Is that what this is? Thanks for the warning, but you didn’t have to startle me to do it.”

A creak comes from the back room, but Ten waves it away. Kun can handle waiting a little longer. He’s just finishing Taeil’s box of books when the door chimes for real.

“You’re my customer?” Ten leans against the counter. “Or are you just here to be social, Yuta?”

Yuta scratches the back of his head. Ten hasn’t seen him in a few weeks, for all they live and work within blocks of each other. He looks tired, strung out in a way Ten hasn’t seen since they graduated university. The swirling tattoo on the side of his neck is dim. Something isn’t right.

“It’s the first one.” Yuta shuts the door behind him and comes behind the counter.

“Hey.” Ten pushes at his shoulder. “Customers behind the counter.”

“But I’m your friend.” Yuta gives his most charming smile. It would work outside the shop, but—

“Not today. If you’re a customer, you go in front of the counter.” Ten shoves him around. Yuta goes willingly enough, despite the whining. “What’s wrong? You’re not glowing.” He points to the tattoo.

Yuta puts a hand on his neck. “Has it gone that far?”

“Has what gone that far?” Ten leans back on the counter.

“The curse.”

He raises an eyebrow. “You’re coming to me for cursebreaking? Yuta the cursebreaker needs help with a curse?”

“Shut up.” Yuta puts his head on the counter. “I’d solve it by myself if I could.”

In trouble or not, Yuta’s hair is ethereal as always, a soft white cloud passing his shoulders. Ten can barely remember what it looked like before Yuta chose cursebreaking, before magic began to seep out of him until his hair turned white much too young. Not that he has any room to talk hair gone silver in his teens. Ten reaches out, then drops his hand to tap at the counter in front of Yuta’s forehead instead. Better not to be too obvious. “What is it, then?”

Yuta doesn’t look up even with the encouragement. “I can’t see it.”

“What?”

He waves. “The curse. Magic. Any of it. My eyes are fine, but I can’t see it anymore.”

Ten stills his hand. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying? You’ve been cursed so you can’t see magic?”

Yuta nods.

There’s no magic on Ten, but something cold drips down his spine anyway. “That sounds like a curse someone should put on me, not you. What’s the point of cursing you not to see magic?”

Finally, Yuta pushes himself upright. “I don’t have the Sight like you do, but I still see curses. It’s the best way to do my job. Now—” he waves his hands helplessly. “I know there’s magic around me. I can still feel it on my skin in the shop, out on the street, but if I don’t see the curses I can’t do any work.”

Ten fidgets. “Is that what you want me for? I’m not a cursebreaker.” Kun yowls agreement from the back. “Shut up, would you?”

Yuta laughs. “I can talk you through breaking it, I just need you to see it.” He taps the tattoo on his neck. “If you can’t see this glowing, then it’s dug in pretty deep. I have a book on cursebreaking that would show you what to look for, and once you tell me what you see I can talk you through the rest.” He gives that smile again. “Please?”

As though Ten was ever going to say no. He closes his eyes, reaching for the mental door his Sight stays locked behind most of the time. When he opens his eyes, the shop’s various spells and essences are enough to give him an instant headache. Ten shakes it away to focus on Yuta. It’s not just the tattoo that looks dim like this; Yuta’s whole being is dampened, especially around his eyes. Those are shadowed almost black, with tiny, tiny silver sigils flickering behind his eyelids. They feel ice-cold. Ten blinks rapidly until the Sight clears away, leaving just the barest traces of magic in his vision.

“Yeah, that’s too serious for me to just play around with. Where’s the book?” Ten grabs at the air

Yuta produces it from—somewhere. Ten isn’t in the business of asking how other witches do things, but he’s never found Yuta to shy away from using a regular bag. The thick tome, bound in black leather, almost reeks of age and monkshood. Ten lets it sit where Yuta leaves it at the corner of the desk.

“Great. Give me a few days to read—are you free Wednesday?” Ten drags out his appointment book—magic and technology don’t mix well, and he would much rather have a reliable place to check his appointments—and flips to the middle of this week. “I have most of the day.”

“Yeah, that’s fine.” Ten lets Yuta scribble himself in for the time slots he wants, which leaves his handwriting standing out boldly against Ten’s own everywhere else. “I can pay you, do you want to handle that on Wednesday, too?”

“You—” He has a point, much as it makes something strange curl in his stomach to think of Yuta paying him for anything. “Yeah, we can fight about it then.” Ten shoves the book back into place under the counter. “I’ll see you on Wednesday then?”

Yuta pushes off the counter. “Sounds good. Call me if you have any questions, though, okay?”

“I’ll do that.” Ten forces himself to stay still at the counter as Yuta backs away. “Will you be okay at work until then?”

Yuta shrugs, pausing by the door. “I have research to do anyway. I can just close down on clients until we get it figured out.” He grins. “Worse comes to worst, I can just make you leave Chenle in here and come look at curses for me. Maybe it’ll give you practice for me.”

“Please.” Ten flips him off. “As though I could let Chenle in here unsupervised. Get out of here before he gets off school, I don’t need you giving him any more ideas.”

Yuta laughs, letting the tiredness slip away for just a moment. He waves before slipping out the door. The chimes don’t last once the door is closed, but Ten hears them anyway.

 _You really are getting pathetic, you know_ , Kun meows as he jumps onto the desk. He nips at Ten’s wrist nearest him. _That’s for ignoring me earlier._

“Right, because you had so much to contribute to the conversation.” Ten pets over Kun’s head anyway. Even if he’s annoyed, his dark fur remains soft under Ten’s fingers. “Speaking of contributions, do you want to change shape and help me sort things out before Chenle gets here?”

Kun noses the book Yuta left. He wrinkles his nose. _You don’t want to read this?_

“Oh, I do. But later. I can focus better if there’s nothing else going on.” And if he thinks too hard about Yuta’s predicament, he won’t be able to fight off that cold feeling. Ten sets the book on top of his appointment log and shoos Kun off the counter. There’s still plenty of work to do.

***

Ten settles into his favorite armchair with Yuta’s book after dinner. The chair is set close enough to the shelving in the wall that when Kun prowls right off the shelf, he lands on the back of the chair and slides onto Ten’s shoulder without trouble. Ten pets under his chin the way his familiar likes without looking away from the text.

 _A curse is like a puzzle,_ the author has written. _Or a riddle. Unraveling it requires the same dexterous mind, but the consequences of failure are much steeper._

Ten snorts. “As though I couldn’t have figured that out for myself. Is this the book Yuta started with, do you think? Did he give me an equivalent to the _Idiot’s Guide to Cursebreaking_?”

Kun jumps into Ten’s lap. He puts a paw over the words, peering up at Ten with amber eyes, still so bright in contrast to his dark fur, but familiar now (ha). He snorts. _If you think the early warnings are too basic, perhaps you should skip the chapter entirely?_

“Not likely.” Ten pulls Kun away from the words, cuddling him closer when he whines. “I’m not taking chances with Yuta’s magic.”

 _Right._ A cold nose bumps his neck through the open line of his shirt. _It’s only his magic you’re concerned with._

Ten’s ears are not burning. They most definitely are not, and if he were to look in a mirror now, he certainly would not see red. “Shut up. Why are you even over here, anyway? You’re no cursebreaker, either.”

Kun rubs his head against Ten’s neck, warming the spot he’d touched. _But I am bored and nocturnal._

“Well. Feel free to spectate while I try to solve this, though I don’t see why it’s any more interesting than catching mice.” But it’s better, even as Kun pretends to bite Ten’s finger for the mice joke, than sitting here alone, trying to solve a problem he has no context to understand.

***

Ten tries to keep his hands still as Yuta walks into his back room. No one but he, Kun, and Chenle usually come back here, but cursebreaking isn’t exactly customer friendly work, and Yuta had been insistent that they work at Ten’s shop. His desk, shoved against the wall, still holds the myriad books and ingredients Ten usually works with, but Yuta won’t care about that—Ten saw his dorm room during university, he has no room to judge. At least the bookcases are neat, spaced along the walls to keep dangerous books away from each other. Ten paces through the empty floor space toward his stool. At least they probably won’t need to draw out any more complex spells—he just swept.

“Nice place you’ve got here.” Yuta spins on his heel. “It’s almost comfy.”

Ten snorts. “And your work room isn’t?”

Yuta shakes his head. “It’s safe, but cursebreaking doesn’t make for a very comfy environment.”

“That’s fair.” Ten scoops up the brush waiting on his table. “Come here.”

“What’s that for?” Yuta comes over anyway. 

“I want to have a clearer view of your face and your tattoo when I do this.” He flicks a bit of hair over Yuta’s ear. “This is in the way. Let me braid your hair?”

Yuta’s face does something interesting before he nods and turns. Ten pushes Yuta into the seat in front of his work table. The brush slips through his hair easily enough that Ten can’t even pretend to take his time with this part. He slips a couple of hair ties out of his pocket and onto his wrist. Yuta’s hair is the longest he’s ever had it, edging past his shoulders, but most of the pieces aren’t long enough to fit into a single braid. Ten sets aside the brush after parting the hair down the middle of Yuta’s head. “I’m going to give you two little braids, you’ll be so cute.”

Yuta whines. “Is this revenge for something?”

“Oh, hush. If you actually didn’t like it you could always move away.” But Yuta doesn’t, not even a little bit, as Ten starts the first braid. It’s heady, more intense than it should be to have Yuta’s hair under his fingers. It’s not like there’s actual magic in it. But Ten can’t help moving slowly, letting a lock slip here and there so he has an excuse to keep Yuta’s hair in his hands longer. Hopefully Yuta won’t notice. He ties off the first braid and switches. The second goes faster because Ten’s running out of excuses. He tugs on that braid after he ties it off, just because he can. 

“All done.” He comes around the chair to stand closer to Yuta’s side. “You look so cute with braids, why don’t you wear your hair like this more often?” He grins.

Yuta swipes at him, but not like he means it. “Shut up. Are you ready to actually work now?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Ten pulls the book Yuta lent him closer along with some clean paper and a pen. “I think I know what I’m looking for now, but your book wasn’t very helpful in terms of knowing how to actually break one.”

Yuta shrugs. “That’s my part of the job.” He fidgets. “And not to rush you, but …”

“Yes, yes, yes. I’ll get started.” Ten gets another chair and unlocks his Sight again. It’s always more bearable to See back here—Kun had taught him how to ward the room to mute most signs of magic early on—and with the guidance of Yuta’s book, his aura—and the curse dampening it—becomes even clearer. Yuta’s eyes look darker than ever. He’s able to enhance the tiny sigils and pull them away from Yuta’s eyelids enough to read, though that won’t help with the actual curse. He makes notes of each one to show Yuta after. Ten bites the inside of his lip when he notices something else—the cloud of emotion that surrounds any given person is in even higher contrast when he uses the Sight like this. Yuta’s is lit up in pinks and reds, deeper than he remembers from the last time he looked at Yuta like this. To be fair, he tries to avoid Seeing anyone, especially his friends. It seems rude to peek at people’s feelings without permission. Who are these pretty colors for? Yuta keeps a steady gaze on Ten, despite the way his eyes must be glowing. Ten shakes it off. There will be time for that later. He inspects the curse more closely. Most of the symbols look at least vaguely familiar. Even if he’s never learned some of the scripts used for different magic, he can at least recognize consistency. So it doesn’t take long to find one that’s very different, intricate and layered in a way the rest isn’t. Ten reaches out before he remembers that of course, he can’t touch what he’s seeing. “That’s strange.”

“What?”

“I think.” He traces the symbol in the air. “I think this is some kind of signature? A maker’s mark, if you will.”

Yuta almost jolts out of his seat. “You know who did this to me?”

Ten shakes his head. “I don’t recognize the mark. But you could probably find them? Hold on.” He sketches the symbol on a separate piece of paper, then passes it to Yuta. “It looks like this.”

Yuta takes the paper and goes very still.

Ten frowns. “Are you going to be okay?”

“Hm?” Yuta shakes himself out of whatever mood this is. “Yes, I’m fine. We can go back to breaking the curse now. The rest of this looks pretty straightforward.”

“Right. If you say so.”

For all Yuta and his book talk about cursebreaking so carefully, the actual process turns out to be fairly simple. Yuta talks him through the untangling of the threads that underlay the dark of the curse after Ten passes over the rest of the symbol sketches. Ten can make those move away on his own to get to the underlying work, but in order to actually do anything with it he needs to describe the mess in front of him again—and it is a mess. He has to compare it to an awful tangle of yarn after Kun’s gotten to it for Yuta to understand, which sets them both off laughing.

Once most of the wires have been uncrossed, so to speak, Yuta has him inspect every inch of his aura to make sure they’re not missing anything. Finally, Ten sits back. No trace remains of the curse as Yuta’s tattoo glows again, too bright for Ten’s sensitive eyes. He squints.

“We should be good to go, now.” Ten points to the tattoo. “You’re all lit up.” He locks down the Sight until only the faint glow of the wards and Yuta’s tattoo leaks through.

“Great.” Yuta bursts out of the chair to grab Ten in a hug. “Thank you.”

“Of course.” Ten hugs him back just as strongly. “Of course, Yuta.” He ignores Kun’s noises from the work table. “I wasn’t going to let someone hurt you.”

“I know.” Yuta pulls back. For a breath, their faces are close enough to—but Ten has to be sure who those colors are for, so he lets Yuta step back. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an important conversation that needs to be had.” He grabs Ten’s drawing off the table.

Ten drifts back as Yuta moves away. “So you do know who it is?”

Yuta nods. “Nasty little warlock, but no one I can’t handle.” There’s a wild light about him that has nothing to do with Ten’s Sight.

“Be careful, won’t you?” Ten bites his lip.

Yuta grins from the doorway. “Of course. I have to come back here so we can argue about payment, don’t I?” He winks and disappears before Ten can yell about that.

Ten sighs. “At least he’ll be back soon.”

 _Are you going to do anything about that ridiculous display when he does?_ Kun leaps onto his shoulder.

“You shut up.” Ten heads into the main room. Time to get back to work.

**Author's Note:**

> Please don't be too mad at me, if I tried to continue past this point the fic would have exploded because Yuta is maybe possibly a little bit downplaying how serious the curse caster situation is and that's going to be a Whole Thing. I hope to write a sequel soon that would address all that! In the meantime, please feel free to yell at me about how foolish these two are and/or about magic, I would love to talk about either.


End file.
